Fire
by evileyelandsmyle
Summary: Chapter three up. Evangeline and John have a little run in with RJ at Rodi's. R
1. Default Chapter

1

"The fish may have smelled good, but it would have tasted better if we hadn't burnt it."

John nodded, a slow, sexy grin spreading across his lips. "I can't say that I mind very much that we burnt it. Now we have more time for other activities."

Evangeline took a step towards him, a smile playing over her features. "And what other activities might you be talking about Detective?"

He leaned closer to her until their lips were less than a millimetre apart. "Maybe a little..."

"A little what John?" Evangeline's voice was heavy with anticipation. He leaned back slowly and smiled.

"Maybe we could go back to Rodi's and play some pool."

"Huh?"

"Pool. You know the game where you take a long stick and use it to push little coloured balls into holes on a table covered with green felt?"

"Pool?"

At this he starts chuckling quietly, while Evangeline sits, staring at him indignantly.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes you. What is it with all the one word questions?"

"Okay. Why are you laughing at me?"

"You should have seen the look on your face."

"Oh so you think it's funny?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well it's not!" she said, slapping him lightly on the upper arm.

He grabbed her wrists lightly evoking a puzzled response from Evangeline.

"What are you doing?"

"Protecting myself from your assault."

She laughed. "Oooh, am I hurting the big manly man?" He smiled at that and shook his head.

"Manly men have feelings too, Evangeline."

"Yes but those huge muscles should be able to take a few hits."

"Are you trying to distract me? Because if you are, I'm not letting go."

"You're on to me." A cool breeze swept across the rooftop, causing Evangeline to shiver involuntarily.

"You cold?"

She shrugged dismissively. "Just a little."

"I know the perfect game to warm you up."

Evangeline groaned softly. "What is it with you and games today?"

"You started it with tennis earlier. But trust me, you'll like this game."

"Alright. What is this game that you're so sure that I'll like?"

"Hockey."

"That just goes to show you how wrong you are. I hate hockey."

John raised his eyebrows and smiled slowly. "Even tonsil hockey?"

"Well I'm not averse to that version of hockey."

"Talk is cheap."

"We wouldn't want that."

They both smiled and leaned closer to each other until their lips met in a searing kiss.

Evangeline's POV

This is the life. After a leisurely lunch with John, Nora and Daniel Coleson, John set up a nice private picnic on the roof of the hotel. And although we burned the fish, I'm not in the least bit upset. As John pointed out, that gives us more time to engage in other activities. Such as making out on the roof of the hotel.

I open my eyes partially and examine my surroundings. I seem to have forgotten my previous, almost paralysing fear of falling off of high things. That seems to be the norm whenever I'm with John. I forget where I am when I'm with him. Maybe not so much forget and more disregard where I am.

I try to push the fact that we're on the roof and very close to the edge out of my mind, but with no such luck. It seems as if now that I've brought it to my attention, I can't ignore it anymore. And it's starting to make itself noticed. Sweaty palms, nervous fluttery feeling in my stomach and the awful feeling of not being able to breathe. Great. I never cease to ruin my own perfect moments.

I brace my hands on John's chest, causing him to pull away and look at me concernedly.

"Evangeline, what's the matter?"

"I just noticed that we were on the roof."

He gives me a confused look and says, "Are you worried about someone walking in on us? Because the only people who come on the roof are Natalie and I and she knows that we're up here, so she won't come up here."

"It's not that. Have I mentioned to you that I have an almost paralysing fear of falling off of high things?"

"No you haven't. Trust me if you had, we wouldn't be up here."

"I have no doubt in my mind. When I was twelve, I fell off a flight of stairs and broke my arm. Ever since then I've been scared of falling off of high things. And just a while ago I noticed that we were on the roof and I started getting short of breath."

"So does this fear come and go? Because, no offense, but five minutes ago you didn't notice that you were on a roof and now you're barely breathing because of it."

I'm pretty sure that I'm turning bright red. A glance at John's amused smile confirms it.

"It doesn't come and go. I'm always scared of heights, it's just that when I'm with you I tend to forget it."

He grinned! I can't believe he thinks this is funny. If I didn't like him so much, I 'd probably throttle him.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Even as I roll my eyes, I can feel my cheeks getting hotter and I know by now my cheeks are probably crimson.

"It's a good thing. I feel safe when I'm with you. _You_ make me feel safe. Although..."

He rolls his eyes and says, "I know. I know. You're not the kind of girl that needs saving."

We both laugh at that before settling into a brief silence.

"John?"

"Hmm?"

"We're still on the roof."

His forehead starts to wrinkle like it does when he's worried about something and he jumps up and takes my hand before going in to full babble mode. How....cute. Cute, but very unlike him.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. You must think I'm pretty insensitive to have you up here still after you just told me that you're scared of heights. I'm-

I place a brief kiss on his lips that does a perfect job of silencing him.

"Don't be sorry. I forgot, myself. Now how about we take this party elsewhere?"

""I'd say that sounds like a pretty good idea."

As we walk down the stairs a cast a sideways glance at him and say, "I'm guessing that I'm never going to hear the end of this one. The girl that doesn't need saving, but might need to be resuscitated if you put her on a ladder."

""I wouldn't say that. But I'm going to have to cancel the plans I made for us to go skydiving. And I was really looking forward to it."

"I'm really sorry about that. But unless you want a dead girlfr-

I stop speaking abruptly when I realize what I almost said. I mean, we're just getting started and I don't want to move too quickly. I glance sideways at John, who instead of looking like I just hit him with a bag of bricks, has a speculative look on his face.

"What were you about to say, Evangeline? Finish it."

Oh what the heck. It's gotta come out sooner or later. I might as well get it out now. "I was saying that you wouldn't want a dead girlfriend."

"Hmm."

By the time we reach his room, he still hasn't said anything else. He sits heavily on the bed and I perch nervously beside him.

"John, aren't you going to say anything? You're making me nervous."

"Sorry. I just needed a little bit of time to process what you just said."

"And?"

"And..... you're right. I wouldn't want to have a dead girlfriend."

We smile at each other and I let out a small sigh of relief before saying, "Well this is new."

"Who would have thought that a burnt fish and a fear of heights would bring this about?"

"You know what? I don't want to talk anymore."

He gives me an amused glance and raises his eyebrows. "Really?"

"I can think of better things to do with our time."

"Well you might have to show me, because I have no idea what you're talking about." he says with a teasing light in his eyes.

Alright McBain. You wanna play coy, you do just that. I'm making sure that I get my own way tonight.

Finis


	2. Home Sick

1A/N: I used a few lines from the 8/26 episode.

Evangeline's POV

Just as I'm about to settle down in the couch with a bowl of popcorn, a box of tissues and A Little Princess, the doorbell rings. I'm sorely tempted not answer it, but it might be someone important. The doorbell rings again and I walk towards the door yelling, "Hold your damn horses, I'm coming!" When I do get there, I fling open the door to reveal the last person I'd expect to see at my house in the middle of the morning. John McBain.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm hurt. No 'hi John' or even a 'hey'? Just 'what are you doing here'?"

Well in my defense, he didn't say hi either. I give him a quick peck on the lips and a smile as I pull him inside and give him an exaggerated "hi".

"To answer your previous question, in some weird turn of events there was nothing to do at the station and I had the day off so I called your office to ask you if you were free for lunch, but your secretary said that you were out sick. So I came over to check on you."

Awww. How sweet. I'm about to tell him that when he notices the tape box on the coffee table and starts to tease me about it.

"A Little Princess, Evangeline? What are you, like ten?"

"I'll have you know that A Little Princess is my all time favourite movie. And you shouldn't be talking seeing as how _you _have a Gameboy."

He chuckles and holds his hands up in surrender. "Alright, you got me there. So were you planning on watching it when I came?"

"Yup. Care to join me?"

"Let me think about it for a minute. Um....... sure." He flashes me that sexy grin of his that always seems to make my heart skip a beat, and slips off his jacket as he settles down in my couch while I pop the movie in the VCR.

I head back to the couch and sit next to John, resting my head on his shoulder.

"You know you're sitting in my corner, right?" I ask him jokingly.

He looks taken aback for a minute before he says, "Well I suppose we could share or switch seats."

"I was just joking, but I am curious as to how we'd share a seat."

He wordlessly, but gently pulls me closer to him until we truly are sharing the seat.

"Comfy?"

"Not quite." I say and shift around until I find a comfortable position which happens to be me stretched out in the chair with my head resting on the armrest and my torso resting in his lap. Not entirely comfortable either, but on the plus side, I'm touching him. I smile to myself and hope he won't notice and ask me what I'm smiling about. No such luck.

"What are you smiling about?"

_Think quick Angie_. Weird enough I talk to myself, but I call myself by the same nickname that my dad used to call me. Even when you consider that that's one of the lasting reminders I have of him, it's still kind of weird. I laugh out loud to myself, causing John to give me an inquisitive look and an amused grin. I shake my head and say, "You don't want to know."

He shrugs his shoulders and turns his attention to the coming attractions. We sit in relative silence until a slight breeze causes me to shiver.

"You cold?"

I nod and say, "Yeah, I kinda am. Aren't you?"

"No, but maybe that's because I'm wearing actual clothes and you're wearing really thin pyjama shorts and a tank top. I'll get you a blanket if you want."

"You don't know where they are. I can get them myself."

"I can get them if you tell me where they are. You're sick, you should just take it easy."

What do you get when you put two equally stubborn people together? An endless argument. For once I'll let someone else win an argument.

"Fine. The linen closet is down the hall, second door to the left."

He gets up and retrieves the blanket. When he gets back into the living room, instead ofjust handing me the blanket, he unfolds it and covers me with it, taking special care to tuck the edges underneath me. What a gentleman.

"Thanks."

"No problem. You know you never did tell me what was wrong with you."

"Last night I pigged out on left over Chinese take out and my stomach showed me it's displeasure in the morning. And I really needed a break from all of my cases."

He nods in agreement and we both turn our attention back to the movie.

John's POV

I can't believe I'm watching A Little Princess. It's almost an oxymoron. When I _do _watch a movie, it's normally a movie made for someone older than a ten year old.

I glance down at Evangeline, who's so absorbed in the movie that she doesn't even notice. I chuckle quietly, but apparently not quietly enough because Evangeline gives me a look and says, "Quit laughing. It's a great movie. It's my opinion that everyone should see this movie."

I can't help but notice how pretty she looks when she frowns. Or remember the way her eyes flash dangerously when she get's really annoyed. Luckily for me, I have not been on the receiving end of one of her "looks". Though I came dangerously close to getting one when I told her that she couldn't use herself as bait to find out what's going on between RJ and Sonia.

She really doesn't understand how dangerous it truly is. But she's dead set on doing it and so I have to back her up, whether I like it or not. But God help Gannon or Sonia if they even so much as threaten her. I'll have them locked up so damn fast they won't know what hit them.

OK. Relax. You're supposed to be watching the movie and enjoying your time away from the station, not worrying about work.

I turn my attention back to the movie. By the time the end credits start rolling, I'm actually convinced that it's a good movie. Okay, it's a great movie. A sniffle causes me to look down and notice that Evangeline is crying. I don't do very well with tears. In fact one might say that I suck with them.

"Whoa." I murmur softly and I run my fingers up her shoulder to her cheek, brushing the tears off

with my thumb.

She laughs softly and says, "I'm a sucker for the ending. It's dumb. It's dumb, I know."

It's not dumb. If someone were to perhaps hold me at gunpoint and threaten to stick bamboo in my nails, maybe I might admit that I was pretty close to crying a few times towards the end.

"No, you're right. Everyone should see that movie."

She turns so that she's facing me and says, "You're only saying that so I'll stop crying."

"Partially. And partially because I mean it. It's better than I expected it to be."

She reaches up and kisses me softly.When she pulls away, I give her a surprised, but pleased look and ask, "What was that for?"

"For coming to check on me and for being so sweet. You would have gotten it much sooner if you hadn't made fun of my movie selection."

"Well for what it's worth, I really did like the movie more than I thought I would. And I really had no choice about coming to make sure you were alright. I wouldn't have been able to do anything for the rest of the day if I hadn't."

I think the shocked expression that's on Evangeline's face right now perfectly describes what's going through my mind right now. I can't believe I just said that. I'm not upset that I did, just very shocked. Well I guess that working on voicing my emotions really is paying off. Huh.

"You're amazing." she says, softly.

I shake my head and smile. "No, I'm not amazing. Just wait until I seriously piss you off, you'll be singing a totally different song."

"Don't try to deny it. You always know the right thing to say to make me feel special."

"I aim to please."

We sit in silence for a few minutes before Evangeline turns to me and asks, "Have you gotten anymore info on Sonia Toledo?"

"No. But I know enough about her to be able to tell you to be careful. She's suspicious and if she finds out what you're up to, she'll have your head. And the worst thing is that you won't even see it coming."

"I'm a big girl John. _If_ and only if the situation does come up that I'm in danger, I've got you to watch my back. Right?"

"What if I were to say no?"

"I would more than likely still go through with it. It wouldn't do anything but make me mad and disappointed."

I shrug. "It never hurts to try. But since you can't be dissuaded, I'll keep an eye on you."

She gives me a dazzling smile and says, "Thanks. I knew I could count on you."

I return the smile and she turns her attention back to the television, where there's a cartoon marathon on. This woman never cease to amaze me.

"So I guess next you're going to tell me that you still play with dolls."

"Huh?"

"You know, the movie and now the cartoons. Are you going to tell me that you still play with dolls?"

"Nooo." she drags out slowly, "but I do have a stuffed animal."

Evangeline's POV

"Really?" He looks at me in surprise.

I just nod. And almost as if there is an invisible hand pushing me, I get out of the couch and head into my bedroom. I pick the toy up off of my bed and bring it back into the living room.

"His name is Puddles. When I was little I used to be afraid of storms. My dad brought him home one day and said that Puddles would always be there to keep me safe even when he couldn't be there. And I have him to this very day."

I look at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he's thinking. I just handed him something out of my memory box, something that I hold sacred. So sacred that not even Nora knows even though she's my best friend. And I swear if he makes fun of me or Puddles, I just might be tempted to kill him.

"I used to be afraid of storms too. But I didn't have a stuffed dog. I had a lullaby." he says softly, so softly, I almost don't hear him.

"It's weird how much alike we are isn't it?"

"Yeah."

We're both silent for a minute until I say, "So... a lullaby."

He smiles. "Yeah. Baby Mine by Bette Midler. My mom used to sing it to me, even after I was a baby. She even sung it when I was sick. It was like a cure all for me."

"Did she sing it after your father died?" I ask him softly.

"No. That's when it lost it's effect. You know when I told you that when she cried, I would just sit outside her room waiting for her to stop crying?" I nod, urging him to go on. "Well I tried once to get her to stop crying. I sang the lullaby because I figured if it could make me, big as I was, feel better, then it should make her feel better."

"But it only made it worse." I offer, more of a question than a statement.

He nods. "And afterwards it just stopped making me feel better. I outgrew it."

"You know, for a while after my dad passed away, I couldn't sleep a night without Puddles. It was actually embarrassing. Here I was, this successful lawyer who couldn't go anywhere without her security "blanket". And then one night, I went to sleep without him and I knew that I didn't need him anymore."

"When was this?"

I can feel the colour rising to my cheeks as I answer, "The night we were locked in Mary Barnes' basement."

I grin slightly as I see a blush steadily rising in John's cheeks. "I made you blush!" I jokingly say.

"Bet you can't do it again."

"Put your money where your mouth is Detective."

"I'd much rather keep my money and put my mouth on you."

I think my cheeks just spontaneously combusted as I emit a strangled cough.

John is just sitting there smirking at me. _The little bugger._

"Now who made who blush?"

I pantomime strangling someone to death and look at him pointedly. He stops but only after he says, "I'm not stopping because I'm scared of you, but I don't feel like dying today."

I roll my eyes and respond, "Whatever."

And it's back to cartoons for us.

I know I like to play tough and pretend that nothing scares me, but the truth is, I'm scared of lots of things. And I like to feel protected. Even if it means telling myself a lie so that I won't be scared of something. Showing that I'm scared would be letting someone get the upper hand. That's why it means so much to me to reveal a simple fear to someone. Because more than anything, I'm afraid of getting hurt anymore than I already have been. That's why up until now I'd been relying on a stuffed animal to keep me safe. There's no way for it to hurt me.

But now I've got John and I know that he would do anything to keep me from getting hurt. Because he understands where I'm coming from and he's just a natural sweetheart. And that knowledge alone makes me feel safe. Although the fact that I'm laying in the couch wrapped in his warm embrace does factor in on making me feel safe.

Pretty soon I start to feel drowsy and my eyes start to droop. I'm tearing my eyes open, trying to stay awake, but sleep is stronger than me and I can tell that its winning the battle.....

( a few hours later)main idea- retype in morning

You know that weird feeling you get when you know that someone is looking at you. Well that's exactly what woke me up. I opened my eyes slowly yawning and stretching at the same time.

I look up to meet John's even gaze, my face on fire from his heated perusal.

"You look so peaceful and innocent when you're asleep."

I yawn again and pull myself into a sitting position, looking around sleepily. Why am I in my bedroom? The last thing I remembered, I was in the living room watching cartoons. I guess my face must be showing my confusion because John sheepishly smiles and says, "When you fell asleep, I put you in your room. I figured you'd be more comfortable in your bed. I hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't, though I was more than comfortable where I was." I say, giving him a small smile and watching as a grin spreads across his face. "How long have I been asleep?"

He looks at his watch and says, "About three hours."

My eyes widen in surprise. "Really? I can't believe I slept that long. I guess I really was tired. What did you do for so long?"

"I was watching that Ren and Stimpy cartoon marathon for a while, but I eventually fell asleep. I woke up ten minutes ago."

"And you've been watching me sleep for that long?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"What can I say? You're beautiful."

"Thanks. You're not too bad looking yourself."

He just smiles.

"You know what?"

"No. What?"

"I'm absolutely starving."

"Me too."

We stare at each other for a few seconds before bursting into peals of laughter. And I have no clue of what we're laughing about. And frankly I don't care. It feels good to be able to laugh over nothing.

When we finally do stop laughing, John opens his mouth to say something but a loud grumble from his stomach beats him to it. I laugh and say, "I guess you really are starving."

He nods an amused grin still on his face. "I could use a huge burger..."

"...with everything on it." I finish for him.

"And a huge plate of fries."

I shake my head. "A salad would be healthier."

"But you and I both know that you're going to have fries ."

"You know me all too well."

"Rodi's?"

I nod in agreement. "Give me ten minutes to get ready."

He raises his eyebrows and looks at me.

"Okay, okay. Give me twenty minutes."

He gets up and walks towards the living room, muttering "Ten minute."under his breath and shaking his head.

I'm sorely tempted to throw something at him, but a quick glance around my room informs me that I only have eighteen minutes to get ready. I better get a move on.

After a quick shower, I dance around my room in just my underwear, going through my closet to find something to wear. I finally settle on a blue V-necked top and a pair of form- fitting black jeans and lay them out on my bed until I'm ready to put them on. I kneel and pull a pair of blue sandals out of the closet, holding them up to my blouse to make sure they match. They do, so I head over to my vanity and attempt to put my makeup while dancing and singing along to the song.

I have no idea why I'm in such a super duper good mood. Maybe it's because I just woke up from a nap, so I have an extra amount of energy than I usually do. That's probably the reason.

"That's a nice look for you." a voice behind me says. I had almost completely forgotten that John was in the house, causing me to jump a few feet into the air and grab the closest thing to my hand, which happened to be my curling iron. I turn towards the voice and note with relief that it's John.

"Oh,"I say, putting my hand to my chest, "it's only you."

"Only me?" he asks, feigning a hurt look.

"I forgot you were in the house. For all I knew, you could have been some demented stalker."

"Oh. I just came in here to point out that you were taking a tad longer than expected. But I stayed to enjoy the dancing."

A fast and steady blush rose in my cheeks. "You saw me dancing in my underwear?"

"And singing. You have a great voice by the way. But it's not like I haven't seen you do it before."

"All the other times I've done that when you were with me, you were sleeping."

"_Pretending_ to sleep." he corrects.

I shake my head and resume putting on my makeup. He watches me silently for a moment before saying, "I'm going to go wait in the living room." I nod as he turns and walks away.

I grin to myself and shake my head. I'm not really embarrassed that he saw me dancing in my underwear. It's a helluva lot better than having your best friend walk in on you doing it. Especially since he won't tease me about it... I hope, but Nora me teased me mercilessly about it for months.

A growl form my stomach reminds me of how hungry I am and how hungry John must be. I hurriedly pull on my clothes and slip on my sandals, grabbing my purse off of the nightstand as I run out of my bedroom.

"I'm ready!" I announce as I walk back into the living room. John has his back to me, inspecting the pictures that line my mantlepiece.

"Cute kid." He says, holding up a picture.

I move closer to him so that I can get a better view of the picture. "Thank you. That's my cousin. We were best friends growing up. That's actually me next to her."

He smiles and puts the picture down. "You look nice. Ready to go?"

I nod my assent and hold my hand out towards him. He takes it and we walk hand in hand out the door.


	3. Rodi's

1Rodi's

After standing on the sidewalk in front of my house for fifteen minutes arguing over whose car we should take, one of us came up with the idea of us both driving our own cars, and meeting each other at Rodi's.

And it's a good thing too, because the when I walked into Rodi's having arrived a few minutes before John, who should I see but RJ?

I tried my hardest to find a seat without him noticing me, but to no avail. He sidled up to me.

"Hello Evangeline."

"Hi RJ." I respond, praying desperately that he won't want to talk long.

Unfortunately he does. And even more unfortunate, John walks into Rodi's, looking around in an attempt to find me.

When he locates me, he smiles and walks up to me, unaware that RJ is behind me.

"How'd you manage to beat me here?"

Before I can reply, RJ reveals himself to John and says, "I thought that you said that you two had broken up."

"Not that it's any of your business Gannon, but we happen to be working on a case together."

RJ turns to me and says, "I'll see you later then." and walks over to where he was sitting before.

John takes a seat beside me at the bar and we place our orders.

"That was close." John whispers.

"Yeah. He's watching us."

"Really? How can you tell?"

"I just can. It feels like someone is beaming a laser on me."

"He doesn't buy that we're broken up."

"That's probably because I told him we had a huge fight and here we are "discussing a case" over a burger and fries."

"What are we gonna do?"

"I have an idea."

He groans almost inaudibly and emphatically shakes his head. "Your ideas have this tendency to put me on edge. I don't know, maybe it's because they're always so dangerous."

I can't help but smile at that. "This one isn't dangerous at all."

"Okay, let's hear it."

"It's fairly easy. We keep whispering and I'll pretend to get mad and walk away. Then you can leave after you finish your drink or whatever and meet me somewhere."

"I think RJ's smart enough to catch on to that."

I shoot him an annoyed look. Hey look, my ideas taken affect already, and I'm not even acting yet. I hate it that he shoots down every good idea I have.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"What if we do something so unpredictable, that it'll shock RJ into thinking that we're broken up."

"Like?"

"Like I make a move on you and you pretend to get mad and slap me. And then you leave. Of course without making a scene, since the only person we want to witness this is RJ."

"It's a good idea except I'll have to hit you hard enough for him to buy that I'm really mad, and I don't want to hurt you. And I won't get to eat. I haven't eaten anything all day."

"Well if you hit me hard enough for it to hurt, then when we meet up, bring an ice pack with you. And we don't have to execute the plan right away. You can eat your burger first."

"That sounds like a plan. But where are we going to meet?"

"How about Angel Square Park."

"That sounds fine."

"You wait in your car until you see me. Then wait a few minute to make sure no one is tailing me before you actually go into the park."

By now our burgers have arrived and we dig in with relish. I eat a little faster than I usually do, prompting John to say, "Calm down. I don't think that there's a chance that the burger will discover legs and walk away anytime soon."

"But there's a chance RJ will."

"Not a chance. He'll stay until we leave and judging on what happens, he might tail one us and he might not."

"What if he tails me?"

"If he leaves after you leave, then I'll call you. If that's the case, go straight to the station and wait for me there."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" I ask.

"Isn't this plan a _bit _dangerous?" he retorts, in the same tone that I just used.

Once I finish my dinner, he gives me an unsure grin and says, "Okay Evangeline. Let's get the ball rolling."

"Alrighty."

So we start talking about the Olympics... of all things. But I figure if anyone is close enough to hear us, they won't think that we really are fighting. But to someone far away, our animated conversation looks like an argument.

About ten minutes into the conversation, John reaches up and brushes my hair out of my face, leaving his palm resting on my cheek. The gesture actually did surprise me. I look up into his eyes and am nearly floored by what I see there. His eyes are identical pools of fear, masked with an emotion that I couldn't quite decipher. Not love, but a whole lot more than just attraction or liking or even caring.

He senses that I'm hesitant and leans forward to whisper, "You'll be fine. Just be careful out there." in my ear. And suddenly, I'm seeing red. I'm not angry at him, but at RJ for the fact that I can't say exactly what I feel to John or show him how I feel. And a tad at me for getting us in this whole mess. And I haul off and hit John square in the jaw and walk away before I can react to what I just did.

Which is of course lose my temper. I hit John a whole lot harder than I intended to, because I was actually really mad. _Daddy always did say that my temper would be my undoing if I didn't learn how to curb it._

I get in my car and look around to make sure there's nothing suspicious before I lock the doors. I take a few deep breaths before I turn on the car and start driving towards the park, making a quick pit stop at the pharmacy for a few ice packs and a bottle of witch hazel. Right before I pull up across from the park, my cell phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Evangeline, it's John. Gannon just left and I'm not sure where he went. Go straight to the station.

"Okay."

I hang up and turn my car around, heading towards the station. I see John's car parked in front and so I head straight to his office.

He's hunched over his refrigerator, holding the side of his face and probably looking for an ice pack.

"I stopped at the pharmacy and got you an ice pack. And some witch hazel just in case there's some swelling."

He straightens up and turns towards me. I gasp as I notice a handprint splayed across his cheek, so bright it looks as if someone painted it on with crimson paint. His cheek is swollen and is already starting to turn a mottled shade of purple around the edges.

"It doesn't feel as bad as it looks." he offers.

"How does it feel?"

"Like someone ran over my face."

He sits at a chair behind his desk and I perch on the desk in front of him.

I dab some of the witch hazel on a paper towel and dab lightly at his face.

"Ow!" he exclaims as he winces.

'I told you that you would regret it." I say, trying to make light of the situation.

"Well I wasn't expecting you to hit me so hard."

I try to dab the witch hazel on his face, but he pushes my hand out of the way.

"Stop being such a baby." I admonish before pulling my arm out of his hold and, exchanging the witch hazel for an ice pack , press it to his cheek. This in turn causes him to mumble a few choice words under his breath.

"If you want, I'll kiss it better for you."

He smiles and I lean down and gently kiss his cheek. As I'm sitting up, the door to his office bursts open. I swing around, temporarily blinded by the flood of light. When my eyes finally adjust, I see Nora standing open mouthed in the doorway.

"Well I was coming in here to see if you knew where Evangeline was because for some reason RJ seemed to think she was with me and I couldn't find her anywhere. Why are you two sitting in the dark?"

"We forgot to turn it on?" I offer, jokingly.

She flicks on the light and I can hear her gasp loudly when she sees John's face.

"Whoa. Who kicked _your _ass?"

John playfully points his finger at me and says, "She did it."

I swat his hand down and laugh. "But it was _your_ idea."

Nora looks confused and visibly so. "Okay. You two are going to tell me what's going on. First RJ comes banging down more door, demanding to talk to Evangeline. Then I had to try and convince him that you weren't with me. _Then_ I had to sit and listen to him gloat about how you broke up with John and he put a move on you at Rodi's and smacked him and left. And after RJ left, I called your house and your answering machine. I called your cell phone and your voice mail picked up, and I know you alway leave your phone on unless you're in court and it was too late for that. I stopped by your office only to be informed that you had called in sick today and when I went to your house, you weren't there, but RJ was, camped out in front in his car. So after calling everyone who could possibly know where you were, I realized that I hadn't called the person you might probably be with. So I called John's cell phone, which is never off, yet for some reason today it was. I got his room number from Antonio and went to see if he was there. I even went to check on the roof for him. After driving all around town, I made a stop to the station to alert Bo that I couldn't find either of you and I couldn't reach either of you only to be told that you were both in John's office. Leading me to find you two sitting in the dark with Evangeline nursing the huge shiner that's on your face and find out that she did it. So start talking."

John and I look at each other and simultaneously begin to laugh. Nora looks at us incredulously, but soon begins to laugh along with us. John motions for Nora to shut the door, and she does so, pulling up a chair close to his desk.

"Well it all started with that whole thing with RJ Gannon and Sonia Toledo. You know what I'm talking about, Nora." She nods and John continues. "Well I kept questioning them both trying to find out what they were doing together, but they weren't giving us any info. So then Evangeline comes up with this harebrained-

"Hey!" I protest.

"Well it sure didn't turn out the way you thought it would. So anyway, Evangeline came up with this _hare-brained_ scheme to get RJ to spill. Pretend that she and I had a huge fight, go to RJ and see him with Sonia and act all jealous and say how much she missed him and stuff. I didn't want her to do it, but she started it before we even had a chance to plan it through. So I reluctantly agreed to watch her back. And everything was going according to Evangeline's plan when she called in sick today and I had the day off. I stopped by to see if she was okay and to make a long story shorter, we decided to go to Rodi's for a burger. Luckily, after arguing for fifteen minutes over whose car to take we decided to drive our own cars and meet each other there. Evangeline got there before me and ran into RJ, who as soon as he saw me with her refused to buy into the load of crap we were feeding him about working on a case. So we came up with a plan which was for me to make a move on her and she would get mad and slap me and exit and then I would leave after making sure that RJ had seen it. He saw it alright and decided to come up to me and gloat. So after he left, I realized that he would probably go looking for Evangeline, so I called her and told her to meet me at the station. And here we are."

Nora says nothing for a while, just looking back and forth between the two of us before asking, "So what went wrong? Because the bruise on John's face is telling me that you hit him harder than you would hit somebody for a small performance."

I blush deeply. There's been a lot of that going on lately. Blushing, I mean. I actually don't think I've ever blushed this much in my life. But I just feel so warm and bubbly inside when I remember the way John looked when he held my face in his hands and how gentle and caring his voice was when he told me to be careful. I think this might be a sign that I might be falling in love. Yup, that's exactly what it is. I'm falling for John McBain and if I'm not mistaken, he's falling just as badly to me. I sigh softly and smile to myself causing Nora and John to exchange equally confused looks.

A light touch on the knee from John sends shivers down my spine and shocks me out of my reverie. "Hey, are you okay? Maybe I should take you home." he says softly, his forehead creasing with concern.

I shake my head adamantly. "No, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

"About what?" Nora asks, prompting me to smile that goofy little smile again.

"About nothing."

"Uh-huh. Whatever it is, I know that I'll get it out of you eventually. But I do wanna know about that horrific handprint that's on your..."

"Boyfriend?" I offer, glancing at John and smiling. Nora catches this is exchange and rolls her eyes. "Okay, that's on your boyfriend's cheek."

"To make a very long story very short, I lost my temper. I was already mad about the whole RJ thing and it made me madder that I had to hit John to go through with my stupid plan and I guess I hit John as hard as I would have hit RJ."

"Well however it happen, remind me to never ever get on your bad side." John says with a smirk.

I turn to Nora. "I don't want to sound rude or anything, but now that you know that we're okay, would you mind giving us a minute Nora?"

"No sure thing. I'm going to go home now because Bo is probably letting Matthew stay up later than he should watching those horror films that give me nightmares, much more him. If you need me, though I doubt you will, just give me a call."

"Thanks!" I call as she leaves the office, closing the door behind her.

"So...." he says, looking at me expectantly.

"So today was one heck of a day. I'm really sorry about hitting you so hard, especially because I wasn't even mad at you."

"I don't mind. I just want to make sure that you're always safe. So if it means getting smacked around a bit, I don't mind."

And those words just helped me make a big decision.

"I want to ask you something." I say at the same time John says it. Great minds really do think alike.

He motions me on that I should go first. "One of my cousins is turning sixteen in a few weeks and she's having this huge cotillion instead of having a normal sweet sixteen party. I was wondering if you would like to go with me."

By doing this, I'm showing that I feel we have moved forward today. I have never, ever introduced a guy that I was going out with to my whole family and so this is a big step for me. I really hope that he'll say yes, because anything else will really disappoint me.

"I would love to go. But only if you agree to come with me to Thanksgiving at my mom's place. She's been begging me to bring someone home for every holiday in the past few years."

I smile. "What's the matter? You ashamed of your family?"

"Nope. Just waiting for the right girl."

I smile the happiest smile I think is even possible for me to smile. "So does that mean you'll go to the cotillion, even though you'll have to get dressed up in a tux and dance and get clucked over by my grandmother and aunts and my mom and sisters and have to listen to my uncles and my Poppy tell horrible jokes that you have to laugh at?"

He pretends to think for a minute. "That sounds about right. Are you prepared to get clucked over by _my _mom and aunts and have Marcie and Shannon and Mikey giving you mysterious looks and having all of my cousin's kids jump all over you and probably ruin at least one item of your clothes?"

"I'll just have to bring an extra change of clothes."

We just sit in the dark smiling at each other until John says, "My mom will make you look at pictures of me and Mike when we were little."

"Good. I want to see them. And maybe hear some stories of your many escapades."

"I know Lori will want to tell those." he says with a groan.

I give him a confused look. "Who's Lori? I didn't know that you had a sister."

"She's not related to me, but she might as well be. We've been best friends ever since the first day of kindergarten. We did everything together."

"Including getting in trouble?"

"Exactly. There's this story my mom loves to tell over and over again. Lori's parents both worked until fairly late and rather than leave her with a babysitter in the evenings, she used to come home with me. And one day our kindergarten teacher read us the story of the Golden Goose and Lori and I got the bright idea that we could hatch a Golden Goose from an egg and then we'd be rich. And it just so happened that when we got home from school my mom was making egg salad for dinner. So we took a hard boiled egg off of the counter when my mom wasn't looking and we hid it in my closet. Of course we didn't know that it was a hard boiled egg. So we're sitting on it for a while and then one day, my mom notices this awful smell coming from my room and she goes to investigate and finds the egg in my closet. The reason it smelled so bad was that it had somehow broken open. So when my mom called Lori and I into the room to ask us about the egg, Lori turns to me and says, "See I told you not to sit on the egg for so long." My mom thought it was so hilarious that she didn't even bother to scold us."

By the time he finishes the story, I'm practically rolling around on his desk I'm laughing so hard.

"That is hilarious." I gasp, in between bouts of laughter.

"So seeing as how I just finished telling you an embarrassing childhood tale, how about you tell me one of your own?" he says, leaning back and looking at me with a smirk.

"Well there's the time that my cousin and I "adopted" the kid next door. When it came to dinner time, and she still hadn't appeared her parents started getting worried. And meanwhile, at my house, we had her hidden in the playroom."

John raises his eyebrows. "A playroom?"

"What? I was an only child. Anyway, her parents combed the neighbourhood and couldn't find her and finally my parents asked us if we had seen her, so we brought them up to the playroom, where she was crying for her parents. The three of us got in so much trouble. I think that was the only time I had ever seen my dad that mad. But it's not a funny story, only incredibly stupid."

"Well that's what little kids do. They do silly stuff and get in trouble. How else would they learn?"

"Your stories are much funnier. Why don't you tell me another one?"

"They're only funny because you get to laugh at me."

"Isn't that the point? Besides, you were laughing when you told the Golden Goose story."

"True. But I'm still not gonna tell another one. Trust me you'll hear enough when you meet Lori."

"Duh. That's the whole point of meeting your family."

"That's the only reason?" he asks, only half jokingly.

"No. I want to meet your family because you're important to me and I know that your family is important to you. And besides, I want to meet the family that gave me such an extraordinary person."

He says nothing, but holds my face between his hands and kisses me with such intense passion that if I wasn't sitting, my knees would have buckled. Boy can this man kiss.

It's starting to get hot in here and I'm not talking about the heat. Before things can get too out of hand, Antonio walks into the office. John and I pull away reluctantly and I can barely keep from laughing at the expression on Antonio's face.

"I um wanted to ask you something, but it can wait until tomorrow morning." he says, before making a hasty retreat.

John shakes his head and grins, saying, "Now he knows how I feel when I walk in on him and Jessica. I'll be right back."

I smile and wave him on. When he comes back a few minutes later, he says, "I just realized that it's like ten minutes til midnight."

"Crap!" I exclaim, jumping off of the desk and rearranging my clothes. "I have a hearing in the morning at 10."

"Well if I take you home now, you can still get eight hours of sleep."

"I don't feel like dealing with RJ at this time of night and I know he'll be waiting for me to get home."

"Well if you don't go home and your not with Nora, RJ's going to naturally assume that you're with me and all of our work will be in vain."

"I don't think RJ could even spoil my good mood right now. I'll see you tomorrow."

He nods and kisses me gently. Just as I'm about to leave his office he says, "Hey, Evangeline."

I turn and look at him. "Hmm?"

"It'll be over soon. I promise."

Yeah. It damn well better be over soon. Because this charade is wearing me out.


End file.
